17/7/25
We slept well, up to a point. Jonathan found a humming noise outside to be a great disturbance. Breakfast was surprisingly vegan. Not a drop of meat to be seen. Only the hard boiled eggs interfered.
The bed had a damp smell as well. We decided to evacuate. All of our camping equipment was hung up to air dry. Our tent, sleeping mats and sleeping bags needed to be bone dry when we packed them away. Who knew when we’d have them out again.
We traipsed back down the Main Street to the famous Love Song Square. The Kangding Love Song was composed by a British man who moved here and fell in love with a Tibetan in 1913. It’s very famous to Chinese people. We’d never heard of it. There were fancy hotels here. We checked in to one, after faffing about for a moment.
The room was stuffy. We went downstairs to have a coffee. As we were drinking we noticed too late that they had Oatly. Damn. Frankie was desperate to have some different clothes so we went shopping in the Kangding Underground Mall. We nosied around all the different clothes shops and Frankie found something in between Chinese and western styles.
Keen to explore some of the culture of Buddhist Kangding we rode the bus, which was very busy, up the hill. Its busyness was probably something to do with the fact it was a very reasonable 10p each. They definitely did public transport the right way.
Nanwu monastery was up a steep road. The monastery had a golden roof. It was beautifully maintained. Around 80 monks inhabited it. Tended plants and flowers. It felt far more authentic than Gongga Gompa. It was perplexing why the mountain monastery experience wasn’t more authentic. It had essentially been commercial. Selling noodles and fizzy drinks at a high mark up. Motorbike rides for £20 a pop. They didn’t seem to be doing anything. There had been weird men, not monks, taking the money. Lhamotse Monastery, as it confusingly also transliterated as, on the other hand was glorious. Big halls. Clean. More spiritual.
It was an easy walk down the hill. We passed a barber on the way down. Jonathan nipped in for a quick haircut and enjoyed two head washes, that were basically massages. Before and after. It was a far better experience than Vietnam and Jonathan looked radically more spiffing.
We spent over an hour searching for a non-existent vegan restaurant that was on Happy Cow. The directions were vague and suggested there was an elevator somewhere. There were no pictures to guide us. After asking half a dozen people we gave up. Instead we went to a Tibetan restaurant also on Happy Cow, that happened to have vegetarian dishes. It overlooked a popular square rammed with domestic tourists.
It was a struggle to order suitable food. We consumed potato curry, and an assortment of barbecued foods including an aubergine that was particularly delicious. In the square below the traditionally Tibetan dressed staff danced. A cello was being played by a woman. An armless man was singing. And a woman was playing the piano. All at the same time, within a hundred metres of each other.
Kangding was an enthralling place. We couldn’t help but be drawn in by the crowds. Everyone was just enjoying the atmosphere and aimlessly wandering around. Half heartedly we returned to our room by around 9pm. We had no iPhone to HDMI cable with us. Instead we watched the only English movie we could find on the on demand system: Star Trek V.
The room was sweltering hot. China was experiencing an extreme heatwave, alongside much of Europe. It was depressing how few people truly realised how bad it was. That the climate all over the world was becoming unliveable. Kangding was +11°C above the long term average for the time of year. Much of China was roasting at over 40°C. Air conditioning, and the associated carbon emissions, would soon become the norm for much of the world.
Surly They Won't Make It 